As more organizations have implemented Microsoft SharePoint, their internal skills and capabilities have grown. As a SharePoint consulting partner, SWC has always tried to look for areas where we can really provide unique value and extend the capabilities of our clients as they are looking to implement SharePoint. One of the ways we do this is through our proprietary SharePoint envisioning process.

Our approach has been honed over the course of more than ten years of experience with Microsoft SharePoint and literally hundreds of implementations. In that time, we have found that an envisioning and design process at the beginning of a project can be a great way to help key stakeholders understand what the platform is capable of and how to get the most out of SharePoint from a business value prospective.

From there we proceed to craft several design concepts that run the spectrum from conservative and more traditional to a little more progressive and perhaps more visually exciting. We then work with the stakeholders to refine those designs into a final creative look and feel and also focus on building out the navigation structure and layout of the rest of the environment.

One of the best things about this approach is that it’s flexible and can scale to any size organization, sector or vertical. We’ve found it’s important to focus on the envisioning and design concept in the beginning of a SharePoint implementation, because a little bit goes a long way towards ultimately creating a more compelling initial experience for users that drives adoption and value.